See what our PTAs Carol and Jayme are up to that benefits YOU!
Well-trained Physical Therapist Assistants (PTAs) are a critical aspect of any physical therapy program. Our Elite Physical TherapyAs work as a part of a team to provide treatment to patients under the guidance of our physical therapists.
At Elite, we have a commitment to continued education beyond the required schooling for our PTs and PTAs so that they may better provide our patients with the latest research and techniques to alleviate their pain and make their recoveries successful.
Our PTAs, Carol Vercher and Jayme Perkins, are both currently in the process of continuing to expand their skills by completing a 40-week mentorship program in Applied Functional Science™ called GIFT. Applied Functional Science is basically the effects that gravity, ground reaction forces, mass, and momentum have on your patient. When completing the course, they will receive a certification in Functional Manual Reaction™ (FMR) as well as being recognized as a Fellow of Applied Functional Science™ (FAFS). Functional Manual Reaction™ is the name used to describe the application of hands to bone segments in order to facilitate an optimal sequence of motion during a functional movement. FMR is used during the clinical tasks of movement assessment, functional training, and rehabilitation.
What does that mean for you and our patients?
FMR allows Carol and Jayme to become a much more efficient and effective practitioner, especially in the areas of assessment, training and conditioning, rehabilitation, and injury prevention.
“I decided to take the GIFT journey to be more effective in helping my patients.”, explains Carol Vercher, PTA. “GIFT is a movement science that starts where patients are successful and builds on that success. It is effective in treating everyone, from the high-level athlete to the elderly and anyone in between. I have enjoyed the review of anatomy and physiology. It has been a great refresher course. What I like best about the program is that it takes an individual, looks at their strengths and weaknesses and their goals, uses that information to design a treatment plan to improve the way they move.”
Jayme Perkins, PTA, agrees that this fellowship will increase her and Carol’s skill set and knowledge of how best to treat patients. “I have very much enjoyed this fellowship, because it has broadened my ability to treat clients in a more functional aspect.”, says Jayme. “This fellowship is designed to be more specific to the activities clients do on a daily basis. We are learning ways to treat common orthopedic conditions in functional movement patterns to enhance their common physical therapy exercises in hopes to return them to their previous activity level of daily living. “, explains Jayme.
Carol and Jayme will complete the program by November 2019. They are excited to begin sharing their new skills with Elite patients in the very near future.
